Jacqueline appears before Indian Enforcement Directorate to give evidence in money laundering case

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, October 20: Sri Lanka-born Bollywood star Jacqueline Fernandez appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi on Wednesday for questioning in connection with an over INR2-billion money laundering case filed against alleged conman Suresh Chandrashekar, officials said.

The actor deposed before the federal agency around 3:30 pm after skipping its summons four times earlier because she was professionally busy shooting for a film called Ram Setu in Ooty, also known as Udhagamandalam, in Tamil Nadu..

Ms Fernandez, 36, has once appeared before the federal agency in August, and recorded her statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the same case.

It is understood that the agency wants to confront her with the main accused in the case Chandrashekhar and his actor wife Leena Maria Paul, and also record her statement again.

The agency, they said, wants to understand some trail of funds and transactions that are allegedly linked to Ms. Fernandez in this case.

Actor and dancer Nora Fatehi, 29, recorded her statement with the ED last week in this case.

Ms Fatehi’s representative had said that she has been the victim in the case and being a witness, she is cooperating and helping the officers in the investigation.

Chandrashekhar and Paul were recently arrested by the ED while they were already lodged in a local jail after they were taken into custody by the Delhi Police on charges of cheating some people, including some high-profile individuals like former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh’s wife Aditi Singh.

In August, the ED had raided some of Chandrashekar’s premises and seized a sea-facing bungalow in Chennai, INR8.25 million cash and over a dozen luxury cars.

It had claimed in a statement that Chandrashekhar is a “known conman” and is being probed by the Delhi Police in a case of alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and extortion to the tune of about two billion rupees.

“Chandrasekhar is the mastermind of this fraud. He has been part of the crime world since the age of 17. He has multiple FIRs (First Information Reports) against him and is presently lodged in Rohini jail here (in connection with the Delhi Police case),” the ED had said.

Despite being in the jail, it said, Chandrashekhar “did not stop conning” people, the ED said.

“He (with a cellphone procured illegally in prison) with the help of technology, made spoof calls to dupe people as the numbers displayed on the called party’s phone number belonged to senior government officers. While speaking (from prison) to these people, he claimed to be a government officer offering to help people for a price,” the ED had claimed.